News

Stonewalling art proposals, council settles on welcome sign

By Bill Moss, Published: March 16, 2013

Grand visions of a soaring piece of public art on Main Street gave way to a clock tower and now a stone welcome sign.

Then the Hendersonville City Council scrapped the clock tower as too expensive — it would have cost more than twice the $40,000 budgeted amount.
Last week the council accepted the recommendation of the Main Street advisory board for the southwest corner of Main Street and Seventh Avenue: a simple welcome sign made of historic granite curbstone.
The City Council authorized two public art pieces as part of the city's $1.6 million makeover of the 500 and 600 blocks of Main Street. After deciding on a mountain-shaped fountain on the First Citizens plaza at Sixth and Main, the council had trouble with the options for the next block. It deemed a 24-foot sculpture too modern and out of character. Then cost estimates for a large clock tower came in at more than $100,000. The council earlier dropped plans for flag poles at the intersection.
The welcome sign would be about 15 feet long and 3 feet high and will have LED lights. A lower profile object on that corner would leave room for rotating pieces of public art, Holloway said.
"The advisory committee wanted to take a step back and look at the (Main Street) district," Holloway told the council.